Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra to Perform Handel’s “Messiah” for Easter

Contributed By R. Scott Lloyd, Church News staff writer

• 27 February 2018

Celebrate the 2018 Easter season with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square’s performance of Handel’s “Messiah” via the live performance or internet stream.

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“We are truly honored to have soloists of such caliber perform with us this Easter season. Their performance with the choir and orchestra will result in a concert we hope will bring the glorious magnitude of Handel’s masterpiece into the hearts and minds of our audience.” —Mack Wilberg, music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square will present Handel’s Messiah in a live performance with two simulcasts Thursday, March 22, and Friday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, with a live internet stream of the Friday performance.

The Easter season concert reprises a similar event held two years ago and was met with enormous success.

Although all of the tickets for Temple Square locations have been distributed, there are still ways to enjoy Messiah.

• The concert will also be shown via live internet stream at motab.org/messiah, ChurchofJesusChrist.org and mormon.org on Friday, March 23, with a pre-concert feed beginning at 7 p.m. MDT and the full concert following at 7:30 p.m. MDT.
• On Wednesday, March 21, at 6:30 p.m. the public is welcome to attend the choir and orchestra’s dress rehearsal held in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Admission is open to everyone eight years of age and older. No tickets are required.
• Patrons without tickets may join the standby line each evening which will form at the flagpole north of the Tabernacle. Many people in standby may be seated in one of the three Temple Square locations: Salt Lake Tabernacle where the performance will be live; the Joseph Smith Building Legacy Theatre with premium sound simulcast; and the Conference Center Theatre with closed-circuit simulcast. (Please note: Temple Square performances will be concert presentations only. See Messiah sing-along information for details about singalong locations.)

Mack Wilberg, music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, will conduct the concert, which presents the oratorio in its entirety.

Four guest soloists with extensive musical backgrounds will be featured: Amanda Woodbury, Tamara Mumford, Tyler Nelson, and Tyler Simpson.

“We are truly honored to have soloists of such caliber perform with us this Easter season,” Wilberg said. “Their performance with the choir and orchestra will result in a concert we hope will bring the glorious magnitude of Handel’s masterpiece into the hearts and minds of our audience.”

Various community, music, and church groups are being invited to join their voices with the choir in a sing-along at various locations throughout the world using the live stream on March 23.

Two years ago, the performance was viewed some 170,000 times in 95 countries. Ron Jarrett, choir president, said, “Through the miracle of modern technology, we are looking forward to having virtual audiences and voices with us again this year. This is a wonderful way to celebrate the birth, life, death, and Resurrection of Christ with people all over the world.”

The live stream will be available from the choir’s website through April 9 to accommodate time zones and schedules. The program will also be broadcast through the Church’s satellite system for use by local congregations. BYUtv will air the concert on Palm Sunday, March 25, at 3:30 p.m. MDT and again on Easter Sunday, April 1, at 10 p.m.

To assist participants, the choir organization is providing resources such as connection instructions and a downloadable PDF file of the concert program with the text of the oratorio and historical information about Messiah at www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/messiah. Participants are asked to post their experiences on social media with the hashtag #MessiahLive.

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